NBPA discussing plans to help players in retirement

Lamar Odom crisis spurs union plans to help NBA players adjust to retirement

National Basketball Players Association executive director Michele Roberts told Yahoo Sports that Lamar Odom's crisis has "reignited" discussions to create a program to aid NBA players who are transitioning toward retirement.

"There are a lot of things that we need to repair with the NBPA," Roberts said a day after speaking to law students at the University of California-Berkeley. "There has been a dearth of services in terms of adhering to the guys' needs. One of the things we spend a lot of time dealing with is the complete absence of any type of transition program for the guys. On one hand you would say that's the responsibility of the [National Basketball] Retired Players Association, but they don't have the resources.

"We're sort of deciding how we can fill that space. Technically, our players are paying dues for services of current members. So there will have to be some buy-in. There is also clearly a lot of buy-in from the membership in terms of our operating health insurance for any retired player. The desire to be supportive of retired players is there among the current members. But what we need to figure out and create is a transition program under the auspice of the NPBA with the collaboration of the NBRPA. Lamar is a great example of why it needs to be done."

Sounds like a good idea. Beyond situations like Odom's, it's clear that a lot of former stars have difficulty adjusting to life after professional basketball, and end up broke in retirement.

Just when you think NBA players couldn't be pampered more...

Just when you think NBA players couldn't be pampered more...

Couldn't agree more.

It's pampering to give them advice and support?

It's actually great that they are doing this. Any person who didn't have that kind of money before should know when and what to spend it on. You should all know that they were probably blinded by the amount of money on their hands at that time.

It's pampering to give them advice and support?

Because we the consumers are the probably the ones thats likely to pay for ever rising upkeep cost on top of ridiculous inflation in stumping economy wiping out middle class so to keep these multi milionaires celebrity lives to continue after retirement.

Resource is probably better spent on youngsters if they want to take preventative measure. But NBPA focus little too much on older players benefit. Its not too surprising they want to protect their interests but why should they go beyond and take over a job that supposed to be job of retired players association. Lack of resource? Seems to me itz one more good reason why they should be teaching youngsters how to not end up like them. Dont keep fixing the machine, just stop breaking it.

I don't think the general public is going to incur any costs here. From the sounds of it, retired players would be paying some dues to be a part of any program that's devised. On top of lending a hand there, what they're talking about sounds like something that's intended to help active players who will one day retire, to avoid some of the sad tales of the past repeating themselves, at least as much as they possibly can. A joint endeavour between the NBPA and NBRPA.

Sorry if I sound harsh, but I ZERO sympathy for cats like Lamar Odom who continue to make bad life choices and engage in self-destructive behavior. We've all had tragedy in our lives, and lost family family members. You gain strength from it and go on. Bad investments I understand, but this fool wasted $75k on hos and drugs - c'mon.

Sorry if I sound harsh, but I ZERO sympathy for cats like Lamar Odom who continue to make bad life choices and engage in self-destructive behavior. We've all had tragedy in our lives, and lost family family members. You gain strength from it and go on. Bad investments I understand, but this fool wasted $75k on hos and drugs - c'mon.

I think this is what Ur Boi means when he said players being pampered.

It's pampering to give them advice and support?

afaik the NBA and players union have a support program for players that even starts with rookies and through out their NBA career and considering the millions they're paid in salary to be able to afford all the help they need to prepare and adjust before their playing career ends, yeah they are pampered if it takes them their entire lucrative career to figure shit out and need someone to hold their hand.


Even someone as unstable as Ron Artest figured he needed to sort his shit out so he got help while he still had a steady source of income playing in the league.

Why would a player wait for his career to end to get the help he needs at the cost of income from those players with active careers considering he had ready options to help himself provided by the league/union or even a 3rd party that he could pay for himself during his playing days?